Master of Fine Arts

Recommended Poetry for Students

 

English Language Poets


Maya Angelou, The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou 
John Ashbery, Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror 
Amiri Baraka, Transbluesency: The Selected Poems of Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones
(1961-1995) 
Elizabeth Bishop, The Complete Poems 
Eavan Boland, In a Time of Violence 
Gwendolyn Brooks, Blacks 
Arthur Brown, A Trumpet in the Morning (special issue of River Styx) 
Anne Carson, Plainwater 
Lucille Clifton, Quilting: Poems 1987-1990 
Billy Collins, Picnic, Lightning 
Rita Dove, Thomas and Beulah or Museum 
Donald Finkel, Selected Poems 
Carolyn Forché, The Country Between Us 
Allen Ginsberg, Howl or Kaddish 
Louise Gluck, The First Four Books of Poetry 
Jorie Graham, The End of Beauty or Selected Poems 
Michael Harper, Dear John, Dear Coltrane 
Robert Hass, Praise 
Robert Hayden, Collected Poems 
Seamus Heaney, Selected Poems: 1966-1987 
Marie Howe, What the Living Do 
Langston Hughes, The Collected Poetry of Langston Hughes 
Richard Hugo, The Lady in Kicking Horse Reservoir 
Donald Justice, Night Light 
Yusef Komunyakaa, Magic City 
Stanley Kunitz, Passing Through 
Philip Levine, They Feed They Lion or What Work Is 
Larry Levis, Elegy 
Robert Lowell, Selected Poems 
W. S. Merwin, The Lice (also found in The Second Four Books of Poems) 
Carole Muske, An Octave Above Thunder: Selected Poems 
Frank O’Hara, Selected Poems 
Sharon Olds, The Dead and the Living 
Mary Oliver, Dream Work 
Carl Phillips, Cortege 
Sylvia Plath, Ariel 
Adrienne Rich, Diving into the Wreck 
Theodore Roethke, Collected Poems 
James Schuyler, Selected Poems 
Anne Sexton, Selected Poems of Anne Sexton 
Charles Simic, Dismantling the Silence 
Gary Snyder, The Back Country or Turtle Island 
William Stafford, Traveling Through the Dark or Stories That Could Be True
Lucky 
Gerald Stern, Life 
Mark Strand, Darker 
James Tate, The Lost Pilot 
Quincy Troupe, Weather Reports: New and Selected Poems 
Derek Walcott, Collected Poems 1948-1984 
C. K. Williams, Tar 
William Carlos Williams, Pictures from Breughel and Other Poems 
Charles Wright, Black Zodiac 
James Wright, Above the River 
Adam Zagajewski, Mysticism for Beginners

Foreign Language Poets 
(Note: If the title listed is not available, look for another book by the same poet.)

Yehuda Amichai, Selected Poetry of Yehuda Amichai (Tr. by Chana Block and
Stephen Mitchell) 
Paul Celan, Speech-Grille (Tr. by Joachim Neugroschel) 
Zbigniew Herbert, Selected Poems (Tr. by Czeslaw Milosz and Peter Dale Scott) 
W. S. Merwin, Selected Translations 
Pablo Neruda, Selected Poems (Ed. by Nathaniel Tarn) 
Dan Pagis, Variable Directions: The Selected Poems of Dan Pagis (Tr. by Stephen
Mitchell) 
Nicanor Parra, Antipoems: New and Selected (Tr. by David Unger) 
Vasco Popa, Collected Poems, 1943-1976 (Tr. by Anne Pennington) 
Yannis Ritsos, Selected Poems, 1938-1988 (Tr. by Kimon Friar and Kostas
Myrsiades) 
Wislawa Szymborska, Sounds, Feelings, Thoughts: Seventy Poems (Tr. by Magnus
J. Krynski and Robert A. Maguire)